1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of configuring a computing device for deployment into a computing environment and more particularly to securely configuring a virtual appliance in a computing environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computing devices range from the simplistic to the complex, from the smallest form factor to room-consuming behemoths. Despite the great disparity in nature of computing devices, all share a common characteristic—the need for configuration. Simplistic computing devices can be enabled prior to delivery to the customer through factory level configuration, while larger systems often require configuration by the customer on site, or by an on site expert installing the computing system. For many devices, configuration is not a one time event, but an ongoing process as device upgrades are applied throughout the product lifecycle of a computing device.
The simplest of computing devices oftentimes involve only a single fixed storage unit like a hard disk drive, a processor, dynamic memory and external low volume storage such as a memory key or floppy disk drive. To configure the computing device, then, requires little more than manual application of configuration data at boot time, often through a basic input output system (BIOS) interface. It is also well known to apply firmware and flash configuration of a computing device through firmware configuration applications distributed along with the configuration data itself. Equally as well known, the network communications interface of a computing device can be used as a conduit through which a configuration can be applied to a computing device.
Configuring a single computing device can be a relatively simple and straightforward affair, however, managing the wide-scale configuration of many hundreds if not thousands of computing devices can be more challenging. To effectuate such an extensive configuration, oftentimes information technologists perform the configuration in a pilot instance of a computing environment within a virtualized host. Once the efficacy and stability of the configuration can be verified in the virtualized host, it is of little consequence to move the virtualized host in file form to the target computing device for activation as a configuration of the target computing device.
Of note, the use of a virtualized host to implement a configuration can be especially helpful in configuring a computing appliance. A computing appliance is known in the art as a self-contained information technology (IT) system that can be plugged into an existing IT infrastructure to carry out a single purpose, making it comparable to a consumer appliance such as the toaster. Computing appliances have gained a foothold in enterprise IT systems because of their simplicity, reliability, ease of use and lower cost compared with general purpose computers. The appliance is designed to address a specific IT operation from within a closed architecture that may contain an operating environment, storage and specific applications. The purpose of an appliance can be to provide additional processing power, network storage or monitoring, or anti-virus and security.
Though the computing appliance can be implemented as a single purpose stand alone computing platform, a virtual form of the computing appliance has evolved to provide an even greater degree of flexibility. In this regard, a virtual appliance is a computing appliance deployed within a virtual environment hosted by a computing platform. To the end user, there is little if any functional distinction between a computing appliance and a virtual appliance, however, from a deployment perspective, distributing a virtual appliance to the end user can be orders of magnitude more simple to manage—especially in configuring and updating the virtual appliance.